A lot has happened in the last week or so. I hit the halfway point in my 31 day vegetarian challenge, I joined a Ragnar Madison-Chicago 200 mile Relay Team and I signed up for Weight Watchers Online (again).

The vegetarian challenge has been going well. I haven’t been keeping up with my daily photos/recipes (there’s quite the backlog). But, I have been eating fabulously. I’ve only slipped up twice and they weren’t on purpose. One was because I was an idiot (who knew Chicken in a Biscuit crackers actually had chicken in them?) and one was at a party – I had some dip and realized after the first bite that there was bacon in it. Of course, my sister taunted me last week with a huge juicy medium-rare steak. And I almost took the steak knife and stabbed her with it. But I refrained. Because I love her. And I don’t want to go to jail over a steak.

I saw Hood to Coast with my running friends last week and it made me realize that yes, I DO want to do the Madison to Chicago relay. Clearly, I’m insane. But so are they. And I <3 them.

As you may know, I’ve been on and off the Weight Watchers program for years. I first joined in 2005 and was most recently a member in 2008 or 2009. I have been hesitant to re-join as I found the old Points program didn’t value fruits and “REAL” food the way I do. I felt it rewarded processed and highly-preserved food. But, ever since Weight Watchers announced the new Points Plus program, I have been intrigued. It holds fruits in a much higher regard and takes into account NOT calories, BUT fat, protein, carbohydrate and fiber content. That’s right… NO CALORIES INVOLVED. I’ve followed some blogs like Bitch Cakes and others who have really taken to the new program and figured, what the hell, I’ll try it again. Oh, and let’s not forget about my neighbor, Esther, who’s in a national commercial for WW!

I’m not going to weekly meetings, but instead relying on the online program and a support system made up of some lovely Tweeps like Sue! We’ve created a private FB support group. If you’d like to join our group, send me an e-mail! It’s been nice for my first few days especially to have a support system I can go to without 1) annoying my twitter followers 2) annoying my fb friends 3) annoying everyone around me.

So that’s what’s going on with me. What’s new with you?

In an effort to keep me more honest about what I’m shoving into my face, I decided that for all of January, I would become a vegetarian. I’ve flirted with the idea before, but could never get over the fact that to be a vegetarian, you can’t eat meat. Like, EVER. And, well, I love me some meat. I just don’t eat it very often. And, when I do eat meat, I make every attempt to ensure it comes from a good home (i.e. cage free/hormone free/antibiotic free/free roaming/grass-fed/etc). I don’t buy chicken or beef from the big companies you would typically associate with those foods, mostly because of how the animals are treated. Generally, when I buy beef, pork or chicken, I purchase it at a farmer’s market, Whole Foods or Outpost – places where I know where the meat came from. I wasn’t always like this, but then I started doing some research and of course, watching films like Food, Inc. solidified this choice for me.

So, here I am. Day #1 of vegetarianism. So far, so good. I almost screwed up, however, at 12:30 this morning while at a New Year’s party. There were bacon-wrapped water chestnuts as an hors d’ouvre and I had been eating them earlier in the night. Luckily, even a slightly intoxicated Amy was able to catch herself before eating it! I’ve been ok so far, but I’m sure that’s because I’m at home and I bought a bunch of vegetarian-friendly foods to aid in the transition to meat-free living.

Happy New Year!

For brunch, I had some leftovers from last night – crackers, beer bread and pizza dip.

For dinner, I had the veggie pizza you see below. MMMMMM (do you see a pattern here? Obviously, pizza is my weakness).

Day 1: Veggie pizza on Naan Bread by amykant

Here’s the recipe for my Veggie Pizza on Naan Bread:

Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat Naan bread, pitas, tortillas or pizza crust
• Veggies
• Tomato paste
• Cheese (I used fresh mozzarella and a little bit of a cheddar jack blend)

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Place crust on pizza stone, cookie sheet or pizza pan. Put a couple of spoonfuls of tomato paste on the crust and spread around. Top with veggies. I used spinach, carrots, broccoli and tomatoes. Then I sliced up the fresh mozzarella (about 3 small balls) and placed on the pizza. I topped with a sprinkle of the shredded cheese blend and baked in the oven for 10-15min (until cheese begins to brown).

I’ve done so many variations on this in the past. One of my favorite veggie mixes to use is broccoli slaw. MMMMM.

It’s been awhile since I shared some food porn, but today’s food porn is quite magnificent (if I do say so myself).

Today I made a pie. From scratch. I even made the crust from scratch. I have mad skillz.

Notice the lattice crust? Oh yeah baby. I cannot wait to eat this pie later tonight with my sister (not the whole pie, but a good sized piece of it for sure).

How did I make the pie? Well, I searched the Internets for some recipes — which I sort of followed.

Crust

Oil Pie Crust from Allrecipes.com:

• 2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used 1/4 cup vegetable oil and 1/4 cup grapeseed oil)
• 1/2 cup milk

Sift flour into bowl, add salt. Pour milk and oil into one measuring cup – do not stir – and add all at once to flour. Stir until mixed and separate into two flat balls. Refrigerate for 15-20 min. Roll out on lightly floured surface.

Pie

I took much liberty in following this recipe: Bridgid’s Blackberry Pie Recipe from Allrecipes.com:

• 2-3 cups fresh blackberries
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1.5-2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 – 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons butter melted

I put about 2 cups of blackberries, 1/4 cup blueberries and 1 cup strawberries and pureed them using the Magic Bullet. I added the puree to a saucepan with the melted butter. Then I added 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup flour and the salt to the pan. I let the sauce get to a slight boil and turned off the heat. In a separate bowl, I mixed the rest of the berries, sugar and flour. I slowly added the sauce mix to the bowl. Then I poured the mixture into the pie pan and baked for 55-60 minutes at 350F.

I ended up with extra filling, so I made some mini tarts:

I had a bit more of the filling left, so I stuck it in the freezer. You never know when you might need some pie filling.

Obviously, I don’t like to measure when I cook. I’m more of a stream of consciousness cook/baker. I go with the flow and make modifications along the way. MMMMMmmmmMMMMM Can’t wait to eat it all!

Last night I made the most amazing meal. It wasn’t SUPER healthy, but it wasn’t SUPER unhealthy either.

To repeat this fabulous meal, this is what you’ll need:

Pasta, milk, cider vinegar, butter, chicken and the following Wildtree goodies: Buffalo Wing Marinade, Natural Grapeseed Oil and Alfredo Extraordinaire. (you can click on the links to view the products on my Wildtree site. For nutritional info, click the product profile card link on each page).

First thing’s first: Line a pan with foil.

Next, get your chicken marinating. I mixed about 1/2 cup of the cider vinegar with 1/4 cup of grapeseed oil and 1 TBSP of the Buffalo Wing Marinade. (I made a half recipe).

Mix it up good then add your chicken. Then put it aside for at least 20 min. For more flavor, prepare this the night before and let it marinade all night in the fridge.

Now you should start getting your water boiling for the pasta. Sorry, no photo because after I did the chicken, I forgot to take pics until the end. Deal.

At this point, stick the chicken in the oven at 400. I think I cooked them 15-20 min a side.

Once the water is boiling, add your pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. Then, get a little saucepan and prep the Alfredo. Depending on how many servings you need (or how thick you like the sauce), adjust the recipe on the package. Melt the butter, add milk and then add the mix, stirring until completely mixed and the sauce is full of creamy goodness.

Drain your pasta, throw it in a bowl, top with some alfredo and then… OMG add the chicken. It’ll look something like this and it will taste HEAVENLY.

Disclaimer: I am an Independent Representative for Wildtree. But I can assure you, even if I didn’t sell the stuff, I would be eating it all the time. I <3 my discount.